One Thanksgiving Celebration Down...One to Go

This is the place we have our Thanksgiving get together...usually. It's at a lodge up the canyon. So pretty up there. We usually have two or three family get-togethers a year. They always turn out fun.

This is who was there. Starting with my baby brother's family.

 

My baby bro...he's a geek but I'm proud of him none the less.

 

His wife and their newest addition.

This is my youngest nephew. So stinkin' cute!

 Youngest niece...practicing to be an artist.

This picture seems to have aged this one. She and her little sister are barely a year apart...or is it just under a year.

Deer in the headlights eyes! Hehe He makes me laugh...constantly.

Some of us are a little camera shy...or just being a stinker.

This is my older brother...he's a thinker. No, seriously, this picture is so him. His mind is always working on figuring something out.

His wife, whom didn't want pictures taken because she's "always got weird expressions" in pictures. I think this one's alright...just a bit blurry. She's still gorgeous though!

Their youngest...obviously not really young. Definitely old enough to know to run when the camera is around.

This little guy...so tender hearted. He blew this balloon up about a million times to get it to stretch this far. I won't even tell you about the pool of spit in there. Ick! Glad it didn't pop by me!

My oldest niece is turning into a young lady! I feel so old...

My nephew is already a young man. He'll be 16 in Jan! Looks like dirt on his chin but it not...it's freakin' facial hair! Love this kid...I mean, young man.

My oldest brother. Most the time he was in the kitchen but...he had to have a fire.

Of course there was two very important people there...

My Allen

and Me.

I better not forget the ones who started it all, meaning the family and the party.

My Mommy doing the grandma thing.

My Daddy. This is after set up was done and we were waiting for the rest of the family.

I was really sad my younger brother and his wife couldn't make it...money sucks, that's all I have to say about that.

Almost forgot My aunt Tam was invited because since she lives with us, she counts as immediate family. Did I mention she gets a bit snap happy too? She's so much fun!

 

Grandma played the piano for entertainment, with help of course.

 

There were games and activities to entertain the kids. What adult can resist playing with play-doh?

Here is one of many masterpieces

The fireplace had a problem. I don't know what they ended up figuring out but they did get one goin'.

Pre-meal food was enjoyed. I caught these two nuts eating some nuts and sharing with their little nut offspring.

Balloons helped entertain. As a kid a balloon could entertain me for hours.

 Little brother teasing with an over inflated balloon. lol

I walked past this table a few times and watched. I don't think any of the games got played by the "official rules". But the rules they played by seemed to be a lot more...creative.

It was very entertaining to watch the "hop on one leg" exercise.

While all this was going on in the kitchen there was always a crew of people doing one thing or another.

Then it was time to eat. Here is the guest of honor getting pulled out of it's hot oil bath.

The turkey looks good, huh? Not as good as the hottie holding it though!

It took two long tables to seat everyone there perfectly.

Good thing the littlest was a lap sitter, or maybe he got to sit out for the whole feast...hm, I don't remember.

And one table for serving.

Awww. That sucks! I didn't get a picture of it when it was full! Oh well, you all know how it would look overflowing with food. The pies we kept in the kitchen though.

There were so many and soooo good!

Notice, not all pie pieces came out whole. But they were finger lickin' good! No wiping the good stuff off here, it all went in the mouth. lol She really is a ham.

Grandpa serving the younger ones.

After eating it was relax and visit time.

My sis-in-law snuggled up with her blanky.

My poor dad, we all give him such a hard time. lol I think he would think we all hate him though if we quit giving him a hard time.

 It snowed while we were there these two were sitting in the window just watching it fall, until they saw my reflection.

 Some had to go out and see if snow is still cold.

Then everyone chipped in and helped clean up the kitchen, divy food up, and put chairs and tables away, sweep and mop, garbage and all the other stuff that goes along with cleaning up.

It was a really fun, busy and eventually relaxing get together. I love spending time with my family.

Hopefully Thanksgiving day will be just as successful with Allen's family (and some of mine mixed in).

Keith!!! This One's For YOU!

Good grief! It's been so long I almost forgot the email to use and password! LOL

Truth is there hasn't been anything big or interesting in our lives happen that is blog worthy...
I know, pathetic.

Oops, that was a lie. I have a new nephew! His name is Remington. He's a cute little stinker...come to think of it though, I don't have one picture of him. Weird. Miss Snap Happy herself has no pictures of her nephew. Guess I better work on that.

The garden was a total bust this year. Hope it does better next year. I think I ate a total of 4 or 5 tomatoes out of it. LOTS of squash though. So much that now just to think about eating some gives me the chills. Ick.

Our potatoes did pretty good too. I think we probably harvested a good 100 lbs total. Remember we only had one row of them, so not too shabby.

I wish I had pictures of something to post...Truth is lately I haven't had much ambition to even check the world out through the view finder. I have seen sooo many gorgeous sunsets the past little while though. I really should have snapped some pictures. And the leaves this year have been very stunning. Bright, beautiful, vibrant colors.

Okay, my loyal readers, let me level with you. I have been such a depressed, stick in the mud, shut in it's not even funny. Poor Allen to put up with me like he does. Heaven knows I love him.

Good news is, I'm comin' back! =)

Life isn't roses (yet) but we are working on getting to where we want to be. Side note here, If anyone has any advice on how to get us there...keep it to yourself. Unsolicited advice has been a huge irritant lately and I'm about to knock the teeth out of the next mouth that spouts off about what we need to do. Not literally, but you get the idea.

I see the silver lining around the huge black cloud that I have been hiding out under and I'm lovin' it! The suns rays are starting bust up this thunder buster!

Thanksgiving is on it's way and Allen gets to be home for this one!!! I can count on one hand (easily) how many Thanksgivings we have been able to spend together since we got married. This is so exciting!

Not too sure how I feel about Christmas. I guess it'll be the same as the last two or three. Don't have to worry about shopping for anyone because no money to buy it. I just hate the hustle and bustle and people get so crabby. Seriously people, if you hate spending so much time in the stores shopping...don't.

New year on it's way...yay. I really hope next year is more eventful than this one has been.

Oh I guess I can't forget this! The past little bit we have got to spend quite a bit of time with Allen's little brother and his family. Last weekend we did family pictures for them. Here's a few that I have "fixed" up. I had to fix them...none of them were very good.

What a cute family! 

Sorry about the blur...bad photographer + stupid camera = bad picture

Here's the hot mama.

Just the "guys".

Big Brother aka: Bubba

Little Brother

Again I say, "What a cute family!"

Tada!!! That's all I have for now.

Lil Miss Homemaker

So yesterday I felt inspired to do something I have never attempted before...I made pickles.

It probably had something to do with the fact we had a full drawer full in the fridge and more on the vine ready to be picked. They sure are pretty huh? I can't wait to eat some...in at least 8 weeks from now. I took a recipe I found online and tweeked it. It called for garlic cloves, I used minced garlic. They said to use fresh dill, I couldn't find any and we looked at 3 different stores, so I used dried dill. I also added a bit of onion since we had one in the fridge that needed to be used. Hope they turn out good.

I think I may borrow my sis-in-law's idea and pickle some zucchini, her's turned out really good.

Also I made yet another baby quilt top. I don't like it as much as the girl one I made, but I still think it's cute.

You can't tell in the picture but there are two different patterns on the white. There is white with blue polka dots and the other is white with a white pattern in it. I may change the pattern a bit and try it with other material. 

I think my next project though will be a patchwork quilt...kinda. I'm still working it out in my head. But it will for sure be more simple than the last two.

We did get our pictures back finally. The only problem is, not very many at all turned out. The header is a couple of them. But instead of waiting for ones that we are completely happy with we went ahead and made some pass-along cards for adoption. I'll have to scan one in when we get them so you can see them. I think we did excellent though, for what we had to work with. We ordered enough we can hand them out like candy, so hopefully it will be a very useful tool in finding the birth mother who will bring our baby from God's Arms, To Her Arms, To Ours. (I love Michael McLean)

Lagoon

I really should've taken the camera, but didn't. Allen and I went to Lagoon with Allen's life long best friend, or as a girl would put it his BFF. We hadn't seen them or spent time with them for months. I would say almost a year. They are so fun! They have two little girls one is 9 and the other 7.
I usually don't like Lagoon because you go for a couple hours get the rides all done then it's like...now what? But this time we had a ball! Watching the girls giggling and playing made it really fun.
I still didn't go on the Rocket, the one time I did I cried like a little girl and had to sit down because my knees were shaking and were so weak. Allen, Shawn and Cat all went while I took the girls on Tilt a Whirl and the Scrambler. We got our cart spinning so fast on the Tilt a Whirl I couldn't pull my head off the back. When we got off they were both giggling and saying, "Let's do it again!" But it was time to go watch their parents on the Rocket. Did I mention Shawn is about as afraid of heights as I am? Haha! He was so freaked out! The girls I think screamed with delight as loud as the people on the ride. I laughed so hard!
I wouldn't mind going with them again. But probably not for a couple or more years.

We Are Back On The Market

Well, apparently we have not been chosen. Our profile is republished and we are now looking for a birthmother. If anyone hears about someone thinking about placing a baby for adoption, please send them our way!

Just In Case

I have had the fabric for a while. Actually, I've had it since we thought we were going to be adopting a baby girl in November (it wasn't due until June or July). I gathered it up, okay actually it was all given to me by random people except I did buy 1/2 yard of pink, because I wanted to make my first girl baby quilt. Well, if you have been following our blog you know she decided to get an abortion. When I found that out...well...we'll just say I put the fabric away.

But now...now I feel the desire to do a baby girl quilt...just in case. *fingers and toes crossed* I'm hoping and praying she will chose us. I would love for Allen to have a daddy's girl. Only problem is, I'm afraid he might spoil the crap out of her. lol But I guess daddy's are allowed.

Anywho, it's not completed yet because I can't quite decide how to tie or quilt it. So this is just a picture of the top finished. It's going to have a yellow back so that's the color edge it will have.

Allen thought I was bit nutty when I had pink with white polka dot, green with white flowers, white with white design and plain yellow fabric and said so proudly, "I'm gonna make our baby girl a quilt out of these."

I almost didn't do it because I thought it would turn out a little weird.

It turned out awesome though! I am so proud of myself. Being a beginner with a sewing machine it was pretty dang hard to figure out how to put it together because it wasn't like patchwork; sew a row together then sew the rows together. I think it might have been easier if it was a spiral even (which it's not). Okay, someone who is better at sewing than me it wouldn't have been hard but dang! this took a lot of brain power for me. lol

My oldest brother showed up just as I was finishing the outer round and I showed him. He says, "It's loud."

This picture doesn't do the shades justice...it is pretty loud. I just hadn't noticed until he said something.

I also got ambitious the other day and decided to use up a bunch of extra yarn I had left over from the last little afghan I did. I ran out of purple so it's not finished yet. I need to buy another skeen...grrr. But here is an unfinished picture of it.

Now all I have to do with this is hook them together and put an edge on it.

I feel so homemakey right now...what is going on??? lol

I know it's not a bad thing but it's kind of strange that I opt to do this type of thing rather than go outside and weed or something. I would've laughed in your face had you told me a few years ago I would be crocheting and making baby quilts. Ahhh, how things change.

Remember the expectant mother in your prayers people, please. Right now she is working on making the hardest decision she may make in her entire life. She's gotta be a strong person. I hope she chooses us, but if she doesn't she still needs the blessing of being able to make her choice and know that it is the best one for her baby.

Wogging

A week or so ago Allen and I decided we really need to get in better shape by eating more healthy and getting more exercise. We decided we better start a little slow and work up. There is a trail just up the road that goes past some fields and through trees, it's really a nice trail. So we went walking a couple days. The third day we could feel a difference from just walking a couple times so we decided to jog a little bit.
Allen doesn't like to jog or run, whatever you prefer to call it, but I love to jog. In jr. high and high school I used to love to run. I haven't really done it much since I haven't been in school. The little bit I did with Allen brought the love of jogging back. I feel so free when I am jogging. A little weird, I know. But that's just me.
Now when Allen gets home at night we go wogging. Right now we walk more than we jog, but hopefully that will be changing soon. In the week that we have been wogging I have lost 2 lbs. Yay! I'm sure Allen has lost more than that just for the simple fact he has the male metabolism but that's okay. I am loving wogging with him! Any time I get spend with my sweetheart is good. Love and respect that man so much!

Calling All Family and Friends!

Asking for prayers that the dream of being "mommy" and "daddy" will finally be realized. Found out today that we are on soft hold (after almost 3 yrs)! It's nothing really promising but it does mean that we have the possibility of adopting...YAY!!! So please send up a prayer or two in our behalf. Love you all and thank you for all of your love and support!
P.S. I wouldn't mind you keeping your fingers and toes crossed until we find out. lol